Viewpoint

“The largest source of unpredictability in the Trump administration is the president’s addiction to television news. For good or bad, mostly bad, the herky-jerky logic of TV news coverage dictates the president’s strategy. Television news is his reality. He watches it for hours on end and measures his performance entirely by the message it sends back to him. What must unnerve Trump, however, is that suddenly, good ratings have been uncoupled from success. He no longer controls the narrative. For the first time in his career, television is winning and Trump is losing.”